Annunciator gas-fixture



No. 608,I00. Patented .luly 26, i898. J. L. BIXBY.

ANNUNCIATUR GAS FIXTURE.

(Appum'ien med Nov. 2e, 1597.)

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.,

JOHN LEWIS BIXBY, OF ARLINGTON, MASSACHUSEFS, ASSlGNOR T() NATilANlELCONANT, OF EROOKTNE, MASSACHUSETTS.

ANNUNCIATOR GAS-FlXTURE.

SPECIFCATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 608,100, dated July 2G,1898.

Application led November.26, 1897. Serial No. 659,754. @lo model.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern.-

le it known that I, JOI-IN LEwIs Diner, of Arlington, in the county ofMiddlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented anew andusefulAnnuneiator Gas-Fixture,of which the following is a specification,reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, making a part thereof.

My invention is the combination ofthe cool; with an annunciatorin suchmanner that the act of opening the cock operates the annuneiator, andwhile its in ain object is to decrease the frequency et gas-poisoningdue to leaving a gas-cool; open but unlighted, yet another importantobject is to enable the quantity of gas or other Vlluid supplied to bedetermined without a meter.

ln the drawings, Figure l. is a sectional elevation of the best forni ofoooh embodying my invention. Figs. 2 and 2 illustrate the inanner ofactuating' the plunger. Fig. 3 is an en d elevation el' the cani and itshandle. Fig. a is a sido elevation of a spigot-cock of usualconstruction, but litted with wires and oontaets. Figs. 5 and (3 aresections on lines 5 5 and G C oi Fig. l. Figs. 7 and Sare diagramsillustrating my invention, Fig. 7 with two wires and Fig. 8 with threewires.

ln order to attain all the objects of my invention, l use a gas-cool;which must be either fully opened or fully closed, for as the timeduring which the cool; is open can be readily ascertained from theannuneiator and as the capacity eln the burner is a definite number etcubic feet per hour the amount of gas supplied can be readily determinedwithout regard to a meter. Moreover, such a cock, with its valve carriedby a spring-plunger, is especially adapted forcombination with anannunciator, as one ci' the contacts can be carried by the plunger andall contacts can be covered by a cap, which is desirable, although notessential, and in addition the use of such a oooh does away with alldanger of that coin- Inon form of accidental gas-poisoning due toaccidental opening er partially opening the cool; or to leaving the gasburning so low that ordinary variations of pressure in the mains willput out the light and yet leave the escaping.

I will therefore ,ti rst describe my new cook, which in itself is avaluable feature 'of my invention. It consists et a body A, with theusual inlet and outlet pipe connections a and a', but between these twoconnections is a port a2, closed by a valve a3, which is carried byplunger a", whose spring a5 tends to keep the valve seated. The plungeris raised by a cam as, which is se constructed that it will not sustainthe plunger until the plunger is fully raised, as will be plain from thedrawings. l have shown the cam ab' as a cylinder with segments out away,and this is the preferred ferm, as a revolution of a very Afew degreesis enough to allow the plungerspring to seat valve as.

Plunger a4 carries terminal l), and when the plunger is not raised l) isin contact with terminal U, thus connecting wires d and d, for l) is theterminal of d and D of d, and when wires d and d' are connected theproper shutter or other moving part of annunciator D is moved to itsposition, which announces that the oook is elosed, and the. motion ofthe sluitter opens the circuit through wires d. and d', near theannunciator,thereby preventing further low et' the current through wiresd and d, and also closes the circuit near the annunciator through wiresd and (Z2, but no eurrent flows, because wires d and d2 are not thenconnected near the oooh; but when Valve a3 is held from its seat the newposition of plunger at connects terminal ZJ with terminal b2, and thuscompletes the circuit through these wires d and di, and the currentiiows, shifting the shutter of annunoiator D to its position, whichannounces that the oook is open, and that shitting of the annunoiatoropens the circuit through d and d2 and closes the circuit through d andd near the annuneiator; but as terminal l) is not then in contact withterminal ti/ no current flows until plunger a'l is released and terminalZ1 again brought into contact with terminal 11'; but the details aboveadverted to are too well known to require further description, ior theannunciator D, with the three-wire system, to move a screen, or ashutter, or a plate, or a lever, er the like to one position when thecircuit' is through one pair of the three wires and to another positionwhen the circuit is through. another pair of the three ICO Wires haslong been familiar to all skilled in that art.

Then an ordinary spigot-cock is used in the embodiment of myinvention-as, for eX- ample, in Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7 1 prefer to useonly two wires d and d', the terminal b of Wire (il being brought intocontact with the terminal b of Wire d when the gas is turned on. Thiscompletes a circuit through Wires d and d and sets the annunciator toannounce that the cock is open, and the action of the shifting part ofthe annunciator breaks the circuit at the annunciator, as is usual inthis Well-known form of annunciator on the two-Wire system. In this formof my invention the attendant Who has charge of the annunciator willmake regular visits to the annuneiators and Will learn by looking at theannunciator which of the cocks connected with it has been opened, and byshifting the shifting part of the annunciator from its positionannouncing that a cock has been opened to its normal position he willclose the eircuit at the annuneiator; but if the cock still be open thecircuit will still be closed at the cock and the shifting part will notremain in its normal position after he shifts it back to that positionand he will know that the cock is still open, whereupon if that cockought not to be open at that time or in that place he will at onceinvestigate the matter.

I am aware of Patents No. 358,161, dated February 22,1887, to McVay, andNo. 491,580, dated February 14, 1893, to Milligan, and disclaim all thatis shown in them, for in my invention it is essential that when thecircuit is made by opening the cock it shall be automatically broken atthe annunciator end of the circuit, and there is no hint or suggestionin either of the above patents as to anything of this sort.

What I claim as my invention is- 1. In combination a cock for permittingand preventing the 110W of a fluid; an annunciator with means forautomatically breaking the circuit; electrodes controlled by the cock tomake the circuit When the cock is opened; and electric conductorsconnecting the electrodes of the annunciator with electrodes of thecock, substantially as described.

2. A cock having a passage connecting its inlet and outlet; a valvecontrolling that passage; a spring-plum ger controlling that valve; anda cam to move the plunger and automatically hold the plunger when in itselevated position, against the force of its spring, all substantially asand for the purpose speciiied.

3. In combination a cock with a passage controlled by a spring-plungerand a cam to move the plunger against the force of its spring; anelectrode carried by the plunger; a second electrode which is in contactwith the plunger-electrode when the valve is closed; a third electrodewhich is in contactwith the plunger-electrode .when the valve is open;conductors for the three electrodes; and an annunciator connected by thethree conductors With the three electrodes, all substantially asdescribed.

JOHN LEWIS BIXBY.

Witnesses:

JOHN R. SNOW, O. R. MITCHELL.

